The present invention relates to improvements in methods of and in apparatus for processing comminuted tobacco leaves, and more particularly to improvements in methods of and in apparatus for recovering and processing (such as recycling) tobacco dust.
Tobacco dust develops in connection with the treatment (such as shredding) of tobacco leaves as well as in connection with further processing of comminuted tobacco leaves and/or of fragments of recycled and artificial tobacco.
It is customary to gather tobacco dust which develops in connection with the comminuting of tobacco leaves as well as in connection with further processing of comminuted (e.g., shredded) tobacco leaf stock. The recovery of tobacco dust is desirable and advantageous for several reasons, namely to clean the air in a tobacco processing plant as well as to recover a relatively high percentage of tobacco, i.e., of the most expensive part of a smokers' product. For example, relatively high quantities of tobacco dust develop in connection with the making of plain cigarettes or other rod-shaped smokers' products. Such dust accumulates in and contaminates the atmosphere around a cigarette making machine or around a production line which includes a cigarette making machine and one or more other machines such as a filter rod making machine and a so-called tipping machine wherein plain cigarettes and filter mouthpieces of unit or multiple unit length are assembled into filter cigarettes of unit or multiple unit length. The means for segregating tobacco dust from the atmosphere surrounding the machines and/or production lines of the above outlined character often includes filters, cyclones and/or other suitable dust-intercepting and collecting arrangements. The thus gathered tobacco dust is recycled or disposed of, i.e., not put to renewed use in a tobacco processing plant.
The reprocessing of tobacco dust in accordance with heretofore known techniques (such as conversion of gathered dust into foils which are thereupon shredded and/or otherwise comminuted to yield shreds or otherwise configurated particles of reconstituted tobacco) is a rather expensive and time-consuming procedure necessitating the utilization of bulky and expensive machinery. On the other hand, disposal of tobacco dust is a wasteful procedure, especially in view of the high percentages of tobacco leaves which are converted into dust during the making of cigarettes and/or other smokable commodities.